Discovery channel ammends

It was pointed out that the world on the logo looked a bit funny, I new I could easily change it so I went back and did.

Under paper effect layer

Over paper effect layer

At a quick glance there no real difference, but what id done is added a paper texture layer over the top of the whole thing, which effected the logo. I'll change it so that it is the original proper logo of the discovery channel. 

Final E4 ident

E4 sound options

I went to YouTube's sound library to quick some sounds. I picked a few that are, upbeat, funky, very E4. The only trouble I had here was that 4/6 of the sounds faded out pretty quick, and i loved the opening bit to it, So I think I'll have to pick between the first 2 tracks, as they run for the majority of the 10 seconds. They still go with the animation and the channel, but they weren't my first choise.

e4 animation test

I did a small test to see if I could get the movement of the plant right when it's just wiggling about at the end. I saw that it moved too fast so when I come to do my final thing, I need to move the plastercine small amounts, to get it to wiggle smoothly. I along planned for the arm curling bit to last 1 second going up and down, but know I will make it last 2 seconds just to slow down the movement.

 I then created a better storyboard with the information i had learnt, so that my animation would run smoother.

For the bud i decided it would be best to create key points, so that I could simply replace them and keep the thing neat, instead of just picking away at it until it got smaller which could make the animation look messy. 

Some serious scalpel skills were needed for this

Animation test

So again, I tested if I should work doubling up the frames or not.  I think what I need to do, to make it smoother, is to take smaller bits off the plant to make it run smoother and when I do double it up, and to really plan my timing better.

 I think more frames are needed when the bud is opening up, as it runs too fast.

Here I was just playing around with what I can make the plant do, here doing using the candle as if it were a weight, I thought was funny, and would go with the maddness E4 have going on.e

I think I might also set the camera on a timer, as when I push the button it sometimes pushed the camera down to a different position.

Also with the Eiffel Tower, that moves around on it's own, so i need to make sure that is secure on the ground.

E4 composition, lighting and camera settings

I've decided I'm going to just have the one plant pot. I think with 3 plants growing, it would just be too overcrowded. I want it to be busy, but not so busy that you don't know what to look at.

I thought I'd see how I'd want the composition to be, and what lighting and stuff I'd need. 

3.5 aperture - 1.6 shutter speed - 200 ISO 

This image was taken with no extra light, just the light in my room, giving me a dark, yellowy image, which I don't want because it's not clean and sharp. The shutter speed is dangerously low (still the risk of something being knocked), so I need to add extra light to bump that up a bit. 

3.5 aperture - 25 shutter speed - ISO 200

I added in the extra light, and I now have a brighter, whiter, sharper image.

Auto focus isn't always reliable. So shoot in manual. 

Now for composition.  This i felt was too close, the plant could easily go off screen

This feels like there is too much foreground space. So I think the middle image will work best. 










I still need to decide how i'm going to do the background, I had in my head, the plant was on a windowsill, so the background would be a window with and outside view. And I was going to say get rid of the reflective surface, but i quite like it actually. 

E4 plant testing

I tested out how I wanted the plant to look fully grown, I like the second image better, it looks better, and is easier than having little bits coming off the main stem bit, plus the first on looks like it belongs in the ocean. 

This first gif has it's frames doubled up. The speed is nice however I think there needs to be more frames just to make it that bit more fluid. 

I worked backwards, as I was advised when creating this. It was so easy to just take pieces of plasticine off, than to add it on and get it nice and smooth without it changing to much. 

This shows is both growing and shirking, it's not doubled up and you can see it runs too fast. smoother, but too fast. I'll work in double frames, just because it saves me time as this animation is to be in 24 fps, and i think it just looks nicer.

I need to make sure I do my stop motion on a sturdy surface, The piece of paper I was on, did move and so it effected my animation. 

Final Discovery channel ident.

Discov sounds

I picked 4 sounds from the YouTube library that i thought would go with my animation. I picked dark ambient music, as this is what the channel kind of uses now in their idents, and I though it would fit with the mysterious underwater scene. 
I asked family which sound went better. Most picked number 1, which was one I really like too. 

Trying out other stuff

I was just curious what would happen if I used the video and the paper layers. 

I exported my video with the top two layers missing, sent it to my iPad and placed the top tow paper layers on top of the screen. I though it looked pretty cool to have both but I'm sticking with digital as it's going to be on tv not in an exhibition. But I still wanted to see what it would look like. 

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming

Although I love how the paper cut out turned out as a 3d object, when I scanned in the layers they just didn't look as good as they did in person, and when I tried using the magic want to get rid of the white, I wasn't just left with the cut out part.

I think rotoscoping the fish digitally would be easier than cutting out 100-odd fish. I found a 2 hour youtube video with ocean fish swimming about, and picked a section from it.

I couldn't drag the video into photoshop like I did with the gif, so I just screen shot the section I wanted (that's a lot of screen shoting). I picked out 3 fish and began rotoscoping them using the pen tool.

The first export went too fast and I knew I needed to double up to frames.

My next export was doubled up in frames and flowed much nicer, but I wasn't happy with how the fish exit the screen, they weren't on long enough and didn't exit nicely. I went back and added more frames so that they did this.

I now just need to add sound/music which I will get from the Youtube audio libirary like a did last time, where they have a range of music and it's free to use.